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The Green Bag

sylvania University law school, Roscoe Pound, John H. Wigmore, directors. PATENT AND TRADE-MARK SECTION

The Section of Patent, Trade-Mark and Copyright Law of the American Bar Association, meeting August 28, was addressed by its chairman, Robert S. Taylor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and dis cussed papers by W. A. Redding, New York, A. L. Morsell of Wisconsin, and G. Nota McGill of the District of Columbia. THE CONFERENCE OF UNIFORM STATE LAWS The twenty-second national Confer ence on Uniform State Laws met Aug. 21-26. President Walter George Smith in his annual address spoke hope fully of the progress of the movement for uniformity of state laws, notwith standing some of the financial handicaps undergone by the Commission. After commenting on judicial decisions bear ing upon the uniform acts, he referred to the suggestions that new proposed acts be drafted covering certain topics, such as, for example, cold storage, vital statistics, boiler inspection, and com putation of time. Statements presented at the Confer ence show that the Negotiable Instru ments Act is now in force in forty states, territories, possessions and the District of Columbia; the Warehouse Receipts Act, in twenty-four; the Sales Act, in ten; the Stock Transfer Act, in five; the Bill of Lading Act, in nine the Foreign Wills Act, in six; the Divorce Act, in three; the Family De sertion Act, in four; Child Labor Act, in one. All the states, territories and pos sessions of the United States are now represented in the Conference either by virtue of legislative action or by the exercise of the Governor's dis cretion.

One of jie most important matters to be acted upon by the Conference was the report of the Committee on Mar riage and Divorce, with a draft of an act on the subject of marriage in another state or country in evasion or violation of the laws of the state of domicile. This act, submitted by Walter George Smith, chairman of the committee, after full discussion, was approved by a vote of 19 to 12, but was later recommitted for further consideration. The proposed act is as follows, the title being pur posely meagre and the penalty clause incomplete, the omissions to be supplied upon submission to the several states: AN ACT TO PREVENT THE EVASION OF LAWS PROHIBITING MARRIAGE Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that if any person residing and intending to continue to reside in this state, who is disabled or prohibited from contracting marriage under the laws of this state, shall go into another state or country and there contract a marriage prohibited and declared void by the laws of this state, such marriage shall be null and void for all purposes in this state with the same effect as though such prohibited marriage had been entered into in this state. Section 2. No marriage shall be contracted in this state by a party residing and intending to continue to reside in another state or juris diction, if such marriage would be void if con tracted in such other state or jurisdiction, and every marriage celebrated in this state in viola tion of this provision shall be null and void. Section 3. Before issuing a license to marry to a person who resides and intends to continue to reside in another state, the officer having authority to issue the license shall satisfy him self, by requiring affidavits or otherwise, that such person is not prohibited from marrying by the laws of the jurisdiction where he or she resides. Section 4. Any official issuing a license with knowledge that the parties are thus prohibited from intermarrying, and any person authorized to celebrate marriage who shall knowingly celebrate such a marriage shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The action of the Conference on the

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